The Southern Foodways Alliance remembered Egerton as an evangelist for the region's cuisine.

"Egerton was an evangelist of Southern food, but more importantly, he knew that our region's food and foodways could open the door to profound and impactful dialogue about race, class, gender, and much more," Sara Camp Arnold wrote on the SFA's website.

Egerton helped found the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1999. The organization gives a prize named for Egerton each year to a champion of social justice in foodways.